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February 2, 2012

A Year of Valentines (with DIY scratch-offs)

I am so excited for Valentine's Day to come so I can give these special valentines to my kids.

Before I get into the tutorial, though, let me tell you how the idea came about because it shows you just what it's like inside this tired mom's brain.

When I first joined Pinterest several months ago, I came across this awesome tutorial for DIY scratch off tickets. For months and months, those tickets stayed in the back of my mind, just waiting for a chance to use them. Then, just before Christmas, I came across this great idea for a Year of Dates with your kids. I loved the idea of monthly activities, but I didn't have time to make them for Christmas. So, those two ideas were floating around my brain in the sea of useless facts and half-baked ideas until ... BAM! They collided! I decided I could make each of my kids twelve Valentine's cards, each with a monthly activity concealed beneath a scratch off!!

Even though my mind can be a scary place sometimes, I love this idea and I'm sure my kids will be thrilled in a couple weeks.

1. Cut out your cards and write a monthly activity on each one. Obviously mine are kid-oriented, but you could easily make a set for a special adult too.

I ended up making three sets, one for each kid. They'll each have the same activities, just in a different order so their month's activity is just for them to have some one-on-one time with me. Most of the activities are free or fairly low cost, but all things that can be rather difficult (or too costly) for me to do with all three kids at once.

Here are the 12 monthly activities I came up with...

Mommy reads a chapter book at bedtime

Go roller-skating or ice-skating

Breakfast at a restaurant

Go to a museum

Go to an amusement park (we have season passes)

Go for a long bike ride

Play mini-golf

Go on a hike

Go to the movies

Dessert at a restaurant

Have a craft night/game night

FREE CHOICE (they can pick that month's activity)

2. Next, attach your Valentines to some pretty paper. ( This is optional, you could always just print your Valentines on cardstock instead, but the different patterns will help me keep the cards going to the right kid ~ plus it looks pretty!)

3. Then you'll want to cover the fronts of your cards with contact paper. I just peeled off the paper backing, set my cards face down, then cut them out.

No picture of me flipping them over and cutting them out, but you get the idea!

4. Now for the fun part ~ turning them into scratch-offs! Mix together a bit of your acrylic paint and the dishwashing soap. I did about two parts paint to one part soap.

5. Then just paint the mixture onto your card where you want the scratch off part to be. I found a foam brush gave great coverage and only needed one coat.

I outlined with a thin brush, then used the foam brush to fill it in.

6. Do the same for all the cards, then set aside to dry.

That's it! As you can see in my first picture, I picked up some little mailboxes in the dollar bins at Target to hold the 12 scratch-off valentines. The kids will be able to scratch off February's ticket on Valentine's Day, then a new one at the beginning of each month for the rest of the year!

These DIY scratch-offs really worked!

I'm really looking forward to the one-on-one time with each of my children throughout the year. Even though many of these activities are ones we'd do anyway, I think having a new one to look forward to each month will make this gift extra special!

This is so cute! I love that you took it to the next level and included fun activities to do with your kids! They will love it for Valentines Day! I pinned it to my Valentines board http://pinterest.com/kate_yospe/valentines/.Happy Valentines!!

Oh, and I'm your newest follower! Weird because I thought I already was following you, but I guess I wasn't... now it's official :) I'd love for you to stop by my blog and follow me back if you'd like.Have a great weekend!xo,Laurie @ Gallamore West :)

I love this! So cute! I saw this on Skip to My Lou I would love it if you would share this with our readers too for Fun Stuff Fridays! http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2012/02/14-days-of-valentines-fun-stuff-fridays_10.html

Found you from Motherhood On a Dime. I love this!! Thanks so much for the tutorial and the date ideas. I made a date a month present for my husband for Christmas, but really just overlooked the kids, so this is perfect :-)

How can I get the printable a? One link takes me to where I have to subscribe to something, and the google docs link doesn't give an option to print. I tried just putting it in the whole screen, but all it does is print one with the corners of the others. I am a teacher and just thought that scratch off cards would be great to add to my 'treasure chest'! I'll bet my students would love them! Another question, so I am clear. Are you actually painting onto the contact paper? And, I assume, that it's clear contact paper? Thanks!

Such intelligent work on the subject and ideal way of writing here. I am really impressed! This post is a helpful overview of the particular topic and very actionable. Interesting approach!Kitchen & Home Sales 2017

We are celebrating Valentines Day with our readers. You can also join us in the biggest Valentines Day party ever. It is now open for everyone. We would love to have you with your friends, and singles are also most welcome.

Really looking forward to the Xbox 2 but its probably a long way off. There is no official Xbox 2 release date yet but I bet, its coming in 2019 or 2020 which is two years from now. It sucks to say the least but I'm hoping it'll be a blast. Fingers-crossed. Gameszone